-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The U.S. Agriculture Department cited drought and heat on Wednesday in designating 597 counties in 14 states as primary natural disaster areas .

`` As drought persists , USDA will continue to partner with producers to see them through longer-term recovery , while taking the swift actions needed to help farmers and ranchers prepare their land and operations for the upcoming planting season , '' Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement .

The designations make qualified farmers in the areas eligible for low-interest loans , the agency said .

Affected counties have suffered severe drought for eight consecutive weeks , which qualified them for the automatic designation .

Richard Oswald , a 62-year-old farmer in Missouri 's Atchison County , said he has been hit hard by the drought but was not sure whether he would take advantage of the drought designation for his county by getting a low-interest loan .

`` The hay situation is not good ; the pastures burned up early because of the heat and lack of rain , '' said Oswald , who was born on a farm and has been farming since he was a teenager . `` This is the worst drought that I have ever seen . An emergency loan is great , but it 's still borrowed money , and as a farmer , that 's not good because you have to pay it back . ''

Chad Breiner of Wabaunsee County , Kansas , said the drought has affected his bull-selling business because he uses grass for feed and has to buy hay .

`` The fact that it has n't rained significantly since June is going to make 2013 look rather bleak because the ponds are low , the creeks are low , and without adequate moisture in the next few months when grazing comes up , our production is going to be significantly less than normal , '' he said .

Last year , the USDA designated 2,245 counties in 39 states , or 71 percent of the United States , as disaster areas due to drought .

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Wednesday 's announcement comes a day after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that 2012 had been the hottest year on record for the continental United States and the second-worst for `` extreme '' weather such as hurricanes , droughts or floods .

The year 's average temperature of 55.3 degrees Fahrenheit across the `` Lower 48 '' was more than 3.2 degrees warmer than the average for the 20th century , NOAA reported . That topped the previous record , set in 1998 , by a full degree .

Drought shriveled crops across the farm belt , leading to an expected rise in food prices in 2013 , according to USDA . It also turned forests of the mountain West into tinder stands that exploded into wildfires over the summer , scorching millions of acres and destroying hundreds of homes .

Seven of the 10 hottest years on U.S. record , which date to 1895 , and four of the hottest five have occurred since 1990 , according to NOAA .

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The year also saw Arctic sea ice hit a record low in more than 30 years of satellite observations and studies that found the world 's major ice sheets have been shrinking at an increasing rate .

Scientists are quick to point out that no single storm can be blamed on climate change , but say a warming world raises the odds of extreme weather .

`` I think , unfortunately , 2012 really may well be the new normal , '' said Daniel Lashof , director of the climate and clean air program at the Natural Resources Defense Council , a U.S. environmental group . `` It 's the kind of year we expect , given the global warming trend is ongoing . ''

The science of global warming is politically controversial but generally accepted as fact by most researchers , who point to heat-trapping carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels as the major cause .

CNN 's Matt Smith and Carma Hassan contributed to this report .

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NEW : `` This is the worst drought I 've ever seen , '' says 62-year-old Missouri farmer

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The designations make farmers eligible for low-interest loans

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Help kicks in automatically after eight consecutive weeks of severe drought

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597 counties in 14 states are designated primary natural disaster areas